A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.

“What evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses?” “I don’t know,” said Scrooge. “Why do you doubt your senses?” “Because,” said Scrooge, “a little thing affects them. A slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There’s more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!”

Oh God! to hear the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life among his hungry brothers in the dust!”